Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Dec 19th, 2020 3:00PM

The alpine rating is considerable, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Wind Slabs and Persistent Slabs.

Avalanche Canada matt, Avalanche Canada

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Sheltered areas at treeline are your best bet for good skiing. The alpine has seen better days, it's looking pretty wind blasted. Best to avoid it for awhile.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Snow is coming! Snow is expected to start around midnight and bring about 12cm by Sunday evening. If that wasn't enough, even more is coming for Monday afternoon. I won't say how much though...don't want to scare it off. As the snow plays through on Sunday temps will fall to -12 by evening. Winds will continue to be very strong in the alpine, but lower areas should escape the full brunt. Only 6-10km at valley bottom.

Avalanche Summary

Nothing was seen today in the Northern Spray area.

Snowpack Summary

A few centimeters came in last night, which helped the skiing. Oddly enough, the winds haven't taken a huge toll on the treeline elevation. Great skiing was had today in sheltered treeline areas. The alpine is a different story...and not in a good way. Extensive wind transport has crossloaded most features and stripped the westerly aspects to gravel. Windslabs are widespread, and plump. Overall the snowpack is doing well with no scary layers. The Dec 9th and Nov 5th are down 45cm & 90cm at treeline.

Terrain and Travel

  • Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.
  • If you are increasing your exposure to avalanche terrain, do it gradually as you gather information.

Problems

Wind Slabs

An icon showing Wind Slabs

There are new surface windslabs on all Easterly aspects today. Test them in small terrain before committing to bigger terrain.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Very Likely

Expected Size

1 - 2.5

Persistent Slabs

An icon showing Persistent Slabs

So far the new load isn't waking this layer up, but given our uncertainty we are still calling the trigger-ability "reactive" versus stubborn Rocky areas are the most likely places to find it as a problem.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

2 - 3

Valid until: Dec 20th, 2020 3:00PM